5 Design Things To Do This Week

La Descarga is one of L.A.’s favorite spots for those nostalgic for Speakeasy-era style (if not Prohibition), and this week the Cuban-themed bar is celebrating its 5 year anniversary. Come for a live band, two fire-eating shows, and “surprise performances.”

Head to the Craft and Folk Art Museum Store this Saturday for a pop-up event with Rinko Kimino, an “established Japanese author, designer, and kimono expert who serves as a cultural ambassador by introducing goods well-known in Japan to an American marketplace.” Rinko will bring antique kimonos, obis and hagire, “small pieces of kimono fabric ready to be imagined into something beautiful.” While there, check out Man-Made.

As locally made wares continue to gain traction with consumers, a new store opening in Highland Park this week will feature a range of products made in the USA. The opening event will include a night of drinks and shopping.

When: Thursday April 2, 6:30-9:30

Where: 4628 York Blvd., Los Angeles

Tickets: Free and open to the public. RSVP desired. RSVP to micha@themiaproject.com

A new exhibition at LACMA examines the centuries old craft of Raku, a method of making tea bowls that traces back to Raku I (Chōjirō) who lived in Japan in the 1500s. The exhibition includes about 100 different Raku works, half of which are tea bowls, with the other half being various vessels used in Japanese tea ceremonies.

For lovers of movies shot in Los Angeles, look no further than New Beverly Cinema this week. They’ll be screening Michael Mann’s Heat; LA locations include architect Thom Mayne’s home in Santa Monica and his Morphosis-designed Beverly Hills restaurant Kate Mantelini (closed last year); there Al Pacino and Robert De Niro take a meeting, in a first-time scene featuring them acting together. And if you love L.A. action movies, it’s hard to beat this one. KCRW’s Henry Rollins also has a cameo.

And on Friday and Saturday, they will be showing PT Anderson’s Boogie Nights, a film about L.A.’s porn scene in the 1970s and ’80s. A ticket to Boogie Nights includes a complimentary screening of Danny Boyle’s breakthrough Trainspotting (strikingly located in Edinburgh, Scotland) as well.